#1115 - Coconut Long Johns

(by Shirley McNevich)

(If you aren't familiar with Long Johns, they are a long donut-like pastry.)

1 envelope Fleischmann's yeast
1/4 cup warm water
1 cup warm milk
1/4 cup softened butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 beaten egg
@3 cups flour
canola oil
deep fryer
Frosting: 1 1/4 cups + 1 TBSP Domino's powdered sugar; 1 TBSP water; 1 tsp. vanilla; 1/8 tsp. salt; 1 bag Baker's Angelflake coconut

Grease a bowl--set aside. Grease cookie sheets--set aside. In a large bowl add warm water and yeast--stir lightly. Add milk, softened butter, powdered sugar, salt, beaten egg and flour--stir. You should end up with a soft dough--if too runny add a little more flour. If too stiff add a little more warm water.Place dough into greased bowl and put a tea towel over the top of the bowl--let the dough rise for just over an hour (the dough should be doubled in size). After the dough has doubled, flour your counter, put the dough ball on top of the flour, lightly flour the top of the dough and use a rolling pin to work the dough to about 1/4" thickness. Carefully cut the dough into rectangular pieces (a typical long john is about 5-6" long, and 2-3" wide). Place the rectangular pieces on to the greased cookie sheets. Cover each of the cookie sheets with a tea towel and let the dough raise until all of the long johns have doubled in size (30-45 minutes). While you're waiting for them to rise, put canola oil into your deep fryer and heat oil to 400 degrees. Fry the long johns (only add as many at a time so that they are not touching each other). When the bottoms are browned to your taste, flip each of the long johns and fry the other sides. After frying the first one, cut it open and check to make sure the long john has been fried all the way through--if not, fry subsequent long johns a little longer on each side. Repeat with all long johns. When they are finished, place them on paper towels to cool and drain the grease. While they are cooling, make the frosting (this frosting is more like a glaze--use your own frosting if you wish): in a bowl add water, vanilla, salt and powdered sugar--stir until smooth. If frosting is too runny add a little more powdered sugar. If frosting is too thick, add a little more water. When the long johns are cooled to room temperature, dip the tops of each long john in the frosting and sprinkle generous amount of coconut on top of the frosting. Lightly use your fingers to tap the coconut into the frosting so that it sticks. Serve immediately. Optional: some people are used to eating long johns that have cream filling or pudding filling. You can make your own cream filling/pudding filling and inject the filling into each long john.